I have a major pain in the arse...It's not a boil.Nor is it a bruise.It's not even a haemorroid. In fact, the pain is more metaphorical rather than physical.Jac and I have entered a world of pain that I will now refer to only as 'visa hell'. There. I've put it out there - and I'm sure it's a feeling many, many, many of you out there in the great wide world have felt at some stage.But I think we're through the worst of it. Visa hell started a few weeks back. We decided to go through a company that will 'assist us' with our visa application. 'No worries, she'll be right

. As good as done' - well at least that's what I thought.But no. Instead, despite still being four months out from flying out of Australia, we were put in our place by our helpful assistant down the other end of the phone.'We need all you documentation by December 16.'.................. ah sorry - 'but we don't fly out until March 14 and don't actually arrive in the UK until April 26???'

Apparently that doesn't matter. So for the last two weeks we've been in the ghastly, fiery hallows of visa hell. Bank statements, letters from friends in the UK. drivers licence copies, passport copies, certified copies of those copies... you get the drift. And all during that nightmarish busy period at work as the year winds down.

But the fires of visa hell have slowly burnt down to what we now hope are just a few twinkling embers. Despite a couple of 'minor' arguments between Jac and I, we seem to have got it all done, and fingers crossed we've somehow ticked every box correctly (including the one that states we are, indeed, NOT terrorists....)

So where does that leave us?It means as of tomorrow, it's exactly three months until we fly out for Singapore

. We are both incredibly over everything that isn't travel related. We are so pumped to be checking out the sights of every country we touch down in, whether it's Singapore, Dubai, Cairo, London, Prague or New York.

But it got us thinking about Canberra, and more to the fact that despite living here for eight years, we really hadn't checked out the place. So today we went down to the lake, hired some push bikes and went for a ride. It was very low key - an hour along the shores of our great man-made Lake Burley-Griffin - but it was nice to soak up the sun and see what we really were leaving behind.

No doubt we'll miss it, and the more little activities we do between now and March 14 will make us miss it that little bit more, but hey, more memories for us to take o/s...

So with visa hell well and truly (hopefully) behind us, we can only begin to imagine the angelic, heavenly experiences that await us in our travels.